“As soon as I open the door I wish we’d had just a few more minutes, because Ava is standing in the doorway looking movie-star pretty, looking Clyde Jones pretty, and I am facing her in a shirt with a red tomato-sauce smear on the chest, my hair in a messy ponytail, realizing that in spite of all our plan-ing I have no idea how to deliver the news we summoned her to hear.”

“The next morning, I knock on the ajar door of Ginger’s office.”

“The next day at noon, I meet Theo and Rebecca at their house just a couple blocks from the café where we had our first meet-ing.”

“An hour later, Charlotte and I are sitting on the floor of Rebecca and Theo’s living room with the rest of the crew, all of us together for the first time.”

“I read it twice,” Ava says, dropping her purse on Toby’s couch and perching on the armrest.”

“When I pull into Toby’s driveway, I find Ava perched on the hood of her car, reading a thick paperback.”

“I guess the realization that Ginger was right about my sofa has shaken my confidence, because this morning I find myself in Theo’s backyard having requested a meeting to go over my progress.”

“At 4:40 a.m. on Sunday morning I pull up to the Echo Park house and text Rebecca that I’m here.”

“Do we need real dinner?”

“Theo and I have appointments at five potential locations for George’s house.”

“My phone rings at 2:23 a.m., a Los Angeles number I don’t recognize.”